Visitor numbers have soared at Bosworth Battlefield since the discovery of King Richard III’s remains beneath a Leicester car park.

Battlefield staff are, of course, delighted with the uptake in interest, but are refusing to get carried away with the current fascination in all things Ricardian.

They say only time will tell if the identification of the last Plantagent king, who came to his end on Bosworth Field, will have a lasting impact on the Leicestershire attraction.

Bosworth Battlefield’s heritage officer Richard Mackinder said: “Don’t get me wrong. We are pleased with our numbers. They are on the up at the moment. There has been a marked increase.”

He said the reconstruction of the head of Richard III, which featured in a TV documentary about the discovery, had been proving particularly popular.

But he added: “You have to remember that public are fickle and we are very weather dependent.

“The weather has been relatively good for a while which makes it nice to have a day out.

“What we don’t know is if the discovery of Richard III hadn’t happened, would the numbers still have gone up?

“We have to give it a few years. That’s when we will know if we are riding a wave or if it was just a good weather blip - a surge.

“It has to be a long-term, sustainable thing. Only time will tell.”

Mr Mackinder believes it will be important to tie in with attractions in Leicester city - in particular, a new £4 million planned Richard III visitor centre in the city - to maximise the Richard III links countywide in the near future.

He said: “The good thing is the fact that research is ongoing. There’s a whole lot more to come out of it.

“I was taking a group round recently and someone asked ‘Are you right or are you wrong - because you were wrong before’ (referring to the recently revised site of the 1485 battle).

“History is fact. It happened. It’s our interpretation that changes.”

n THE FACE of King Richard III, brought to ‘life’ by craniofacial reconstructor Professor Caroline Wilkinson, will be on display at the battlefield centre until July 16.

Professor Wilkinson herself will be visiting the centre on Sunday, July 14, at 2pm to give an illustrated talk about the work.

Tickets cost £10 and include entry into the Bosworth Battlefield Exhibition, in which the reconstructed head is on display.

Places are limited and advance booking is essential. Call the battlefield centre on Hinckley 290429.

n RICHARD III ready for battle is the subject of a new painting that was unveiled at the Battlefield Centre by artist Graham Turner.

Mr Turner, who produced a painting of The Battle of Bosworth to mark the event’s quincentenary in 1995, believes his new work could be the most lifelike image of the king to date.

In an interview for the BBC he said: “Like a lot of other people, I was on tenterhooks waiting for the news from the DNA tests.

“When they discovered the skeleton was Richard’s and did the facial reconstruction which is now at Bosworth, I was able to incorporate all that new information into the painting.

“Hopefully my painting will be the first that shows him as he was.”

Prints of Mr Turner’s painting are available for sale at the centre shop.